Introduction: employees bring the brand promise to life

Brand building is a process of identity creation and requires that employees consider and deliver the brand promise in all that they do, at every point of contact with stakeholders, from consumer markets to special interest groups.

For example, the engineering-centric company Google, as Brin (2007:53) explains requires that all their people, from divisions ranging from new product design to legal advice and finance, consistently devote around 20 percent of their time to explore and implement innovative practices. This is intended to ensure that the brand remains true to its promise to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Concurring, authors such as Mitchell (2005:4),  Christensen, Marx and Stevenson (2006:73) and Gobe (2007:69) reason that brand building requires a brand culture within which employees understand the concept and importance of the brand, demonstrate a deep understanding of what the brand stands for and are emotionally committed to live or act upon the brand promise.

Brand builders will need to fully consider the underlying parameters that define a brand culture. While effective, internal brand strategy tools and communications can be designed and implemented to create understanding of the concept of brand and convey the intent of the brand promise, it may still be critically short of creating and building an organisation of emotionally connected people who believe in the brand. To ensure that employees grow to feel for, value, trust and have regard for the brand, is a more complex challenge for brand builders. This article shares four key thoughts on what attributes brands need to have in order for employees to believe in them. Brand builders should consider and invest in these as they determine and direct successful delivery of the brand promise.

The study: when do people believe in the company or organisational brand?
The author conducted four individual workshops in 2007 with a collective sample of 96 middle and senior management professionals from various South African companies. In tandem, the opinions of a convenience sample of 19 opinion leaders in the branding and communications industry in South Africa were assessed. The research revealed four distinctive factors that influence employees’ belief in the company or organisational brand. They are presented below, in order of perceived importance.
The exploratory research results: employees believe in the brand when…

1. The brand ’walks its talk’, both internally and externally. Two principles, although interrelated, emerged from the study of literature and the exploratory research in attempting to isolate the most influential variable in employees’ belief in the company or organisational brand. Firstly, for employees to believe in the company brand, it must be seen to deliver on its brand promise in all that it does, at each and every point of contact, both externally and internally. Brand integrity and credibility requires coherent brand contact performance. The research revealed that a brand promise executed merely at a superficial level is likely to meet with employee ridicule and does not lead to a growth in internal brand pride.
Secondly, employees are more likely to believe in the company or organisational brand that delivers its promises even-handedly to its own employees as well as to its most valuable customers. The first requisite for employee belief in the company or organisational brand is to ‘walk the brand talk’, both internally and externally.

2. Operational systems guide; encourage, recognise and reward on-brand behaviour, and recruitment systems create natural brand-fit. The need for operational processes and systems to guide, track and support the brand identity and on-brand behaviour is expressed in literature and was reflected in the exploratory research study as follows:

  • A need for the design and implementation of brand focused job role descriptions, performance criteria and business reward models.
  • A need for brand sessions aimed at emotionally engaging employees. For example, Lego evolved its brand positioning by implementing regular ‘dream-out’ sessions in which employees are invited to share their dreams for the brand.
  • A need for projects dedicated to the employee-brand relationship. For example, Outsurance’s ‘staff helping South Africa out – 24 projects, 182 staff members’ is directed by employees’ community involvement.
  • A need for company recruitment and interview models that create employee brand-fit, thus avoiding an internal brand condition that Colyer (2003:3) describes as “trying to squeeze new employees until they fit or are fit to burst.” Senior management respondents, in particular, repeatedly pointed out that people were more likely to believe in the company or organisational brand if they could naturally identify with the brand, and had ‘the same value system’ or ‘belief system’ as the brand. The respondents sampled in this study were uniformly of the opinion that for employees to believe in the company or organisational brand; operational systems needed to guide, encourage, recognise and reward on-brand behaviour and recruitment systems needed to identify natural brand-fit. These seem to be current operational brand needs of companies and organisations in South Africa.

3. The brand vision; identity, actions and employee’s roles in brand building are fully understood and felt to be worth believing in. Mitchell (2005:5) argues that “Employees need to have a clear and powerful view of what they are part of and where the brand and business are going.” Concurring, Christensen, Marx and Stevenson (2006:73) reinforce that a strong company culture will be guided by a belief in its vision and the best methods to
achieve it. In this exploratory study respondents stated that an understanding of the brand identity and an individual day-to-day role in building the brand was a prerequisite for people to believe in the brand. They furthermore argued that companies and organisations needed to keep employees well informed of any shifts and changes in brand direction if they wished to nurture and develop belief in the brand. Finally, respondents were also convinced that employees would believe in a brand if its products and services, track record, identity and citizenship were respected and admired by society at large. A logical conclusion is therefore that for the people of the company to believe in the brand; the brand vision, identity, brand actions and employee’s role in brand building must be both well understood and well worth believing in.

4. Leadership lives the brand. Ollins (2003:89) cites that brand credibility depends on leaders and management who base their actions with sincerity and integrity on the brand promise. The exploratory research study reinforces the notion that employee belief in the company brand requires ‘the executive to live the brand values’ and ‘behave according to the brand code’ in all that they say and do. The influence that leadership of the brand has on employee belief is seen to be a critical factor. When considered in relation to other factors this critical influence becomes more apparent. The company or brand can only ‘walk its brand talk’ internally and externally if its leadership exhibits the proper deep-seated brand values. It is also the leadership of the brand that directs the brand vision, identity and operational systems to guide, encourage, recognise and reward onbrand behaviour.

Conclusion
The central purpose of internal brand building is to ensure that all employees understand and believe in the brand promise.
This culture requires:

  • The brand to consistently deliver its promise, both internally and externally.
  • Systems to guide, encourage, recognise and reward on-brand behaviour.
  • The brand vision, identity, actions and employee’s role to be well understood and felt to be worth believing in.
  • The leadership of the brand to believe in and live the brand with integrity and sincerity.

Flowing from this, it seems self-evident that employees’ belief in the company brand depend on the leadership, management and performance of the business. To build an organisation of people who believe in the brand and coherently deliver its promise, internal brand building must be integral to business and brand strategy.